New Release Report 11/29/11: Got Live If You Want It!

With only one major release week left in 2011, the industry is heading into break mode, but not before unleashing two superstar live albums this week. First and foremost, there’s Live At The Royal Albert Hall, the first ever live CD and DVD from this year’s it-girl, Adele. The British singer regales us with tracks from her two smash albums, plus a smattering of covers-including a delicate take on Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, which we featured in a cover convo some while back. Meanwhile, the hard-working (even with bun in oven) Beyonce Knowles-Carter is releasing material (on DVD) from her intimate concert at New York’s Webster Hall earlier this summer. Bey’s released a fairly decent amount of live material already, so this seems even more like a placeholder than usual–will it tide fans over until she’s back from maternity leave? Not to be outdone on the live diva tip? Aussie superstar (and certified sexpot) Kylie Minogue is releasing a triple-disc audiovisual document of the tour behind her most recent album, Aphrodite.

Multiple-disc sets are your thing? What about reissues? Two of the ’90s most durable rock albums are getting the deluxe treatment today. The Smashing Pumpkins’ indie debut, Gish, and their 1994 breakthrough, Siamese Dream. Both are available as remastered single discs as well as multi-disc packages with bonus material. They’re joined on this release day by Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Cliff, whose new EP, Sacred Fire, was produced by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong. R&B thug Trey Songz isn’t getting left out of the holiday release schedule. In lieu of a complete new album, the former Tremaine Neverson is hitting us with an EP entitled Inevitable.

Watched the American Music Awards last week and trying to figure out who the hell those people were who won the New Artist award? The name of the band is Hot Chelle Rae, they scored a Top 5 hit this summer with “Tonight Tonight” (not a remake of the Smashing Pumpkins hit, thankfully), and their new album, Whatever, is hitting stores just in time for a legion of tweens with open wallets to rush in and snap copies of their CD up-maybe. Their parents, if they’re hip, might want to grab a copy of The Singles Collection, a set that should wrap up the career of the dopest cartoon band ever-Gorillaz.

That does it for this week, but there’s a LOT happening next week, so if nothing here grabs you, just stay tuned. Make sure you check out Pause and Play for a more in-depth look at this week’s releases and beyond.

1 comment

Mrs. Tremaine Aldon Neverson says:

Nov 29, 2011

Can’t wait to get Trey Songz charity cd, inevitable… Then… Chapter 5 next year which is approaching very fast, just don’t know exactly when at this point cause he is working so hard on it. I Love You Tremaine Aldon Neverson!!! 🙂